My kid has had an iPad hand-me-down since he was about one and a half. My husband and I agreed that Kiddo could have limited technology usage, provided that it was educational and interactive. Now our son is three, and we continue to find new and exciting apps to keep him engaged and exploring. We got the Kidloland full app a few months ago, and our son is still entertained. Here’s my honest review of the Kidloland app for toddlers – plus a video of Kiddo playing!
I was given a subscription for free so that my son and I could test out the app. I’ve communicated my detailed analysis directly to the developers, and here is a rundown of my honest review.
I will warn you: this app is all about the music. And I’m a degreed, certified music educator. So I was quite critical, and am in communication with the developers as they make improvements and updates. (On a side note, they were really interested in what I had to say, which is appreciated!)
Once you open the Kidloland app, you are hit with a bright, brilliant home screen. And you quickly realize that this app is exceptionally thorough. It has tons of content! And each of the categories have multiple songs. You’re honestly getting hundreds of tunes and activities. I’ve not come across a more extensive app for young children’s songs.
The topics range from letters and numbers, to seasons and foods, to lullabies and holidays.
samples of the scrolling menu
Essentially, your child picks a topic and then a specific song. From there, a visual playlist begins (think music videos) which feature animal and human characters. The scenery and characters are interactive, so tap something and see what happens! See the video at the end of this post as my son shows you!
The playlist will continue unless you exit or hit the home button, and I like that it does this. Kids’ songs are generally quite short, so this keeps the child engaged and makes the tunes seem less choppy.
Another amazing bonus to this app is that you can download the content so that it’s accessible offline. This is a game-changer if you’re going to be on a road trip, taking a flight, etc.
The hidden gem in this app is not even the music: it’s the games. The game category has quite a few different activities, from puzzles to exploratory games. My son loves anything with the ocean and marine animals, so he found that game pretty quickly. And he played for such a long time; watching him, I never noticed a repeated puzzle. I was seriously impressed! All that original material! And for an older toddler like my three year old, something more interactive than just touching a cow to hear a “moo” really kept him engaged a lot more.
While I was in the process of writing this review, the creators also added a “Stories” section with various bedtime stories and fables. The app will read it to you, or let you peruse it on your own. Love it!
the hidden gem: games!
But I wanted to give you the cons to this app. Do look for possible updates and changes in the future, but these are my current complaints. It’s only fair to my readers to get an honest, balanced, complete review.
The big complaint is just the lyrics themselves. I feel like a lot of the songs sacrifice good content just for the sake of rhyming two lines together. Some of the lines are really cheesy, and they didn’t hold my son’s interest because he wasn’t learning anything. I do appreciate the effort made to rhyme – that’s really essential for little ones – but hopefully some more dynamic, interesting and informative lyrics are in our future!
As a trained musician, I’m also bothered by a lot of the melodies. The main melodic line clashes with the background chords which causes dissonance. The melodies are often difficult to follow; an awkward melody is harder for a child to learn because it doesn’t have a logical flow to it. There’s beauty in simplicity (think “Mary Had a Little Lamb”).
I’d also love to hear more than one singer – a child’s or man’s voice would be great, instead of just one woman throughout the hundreds of songs. Wouldn’t it be neat if there were various accents, too?
A small note, too: the games I raved about earlier seem to be a bit buried in the main menu. I know that Kidloland likes to advertise all of the music selection they have (and man it’s a lot!), but the games are great quality too and they’re not easily found.
I think if you have a younger toddler and are willing to pay for an app subscription, Kidloland can be a great addition to their device! You can do a free trial for 7 days if you’re not sure you’re ready to pay for a subscription.
You can also check out Kidloland on the various app stores:
Google Play Store link
iOS link
Amazon Appstore link
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